History Main / NoSuchThingAsAlienPopCulture

* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' is also an aversion. Alternian pop culture is highly advanced -- they have video games and TV and tabletop RPG lore and [[Literature/{{Twilight}} bad books about vampires]]. In fact, the troll movie industry has been running for so long that they've run out of titles, and instead [[InWhichATropeIsDescribed describe films with a list of the tropes that appear in them]]. This is appropriate because the characters are all {{Geek}}s into varying fandoms. Karkat is even into an Alternian {{Expy}} of ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir''. PlayedForLaughs, mostly. It should be noted that in-universe [[spoiler: Alternian pop culture has actually inspired human pop culture - because trolls created the human universe.]]

* Film/GalaxyQuest is a deconstruction.

* One of the fan webcomics of ''Warhammer 40,000'' entitled ''Eagle Ordinary'' has Astra Militarum (nee Imperial Guard) war heroes getting action figures made of them, along with saturday-morning cartoons and playsets. [[NamesTheSame Commisar-General Ibram Gaunt]] constantly has to tell everyone he's [[Literature/GauntsGhosts not the famous one]].

*** Cardassian "enigma tales" (detective stories) get mentioned a couple of times. One episode also features Bashir and Garak having a debate about the virtues of the Cardassian "repetitive epic", a type of story in which the essential plot is repeated several times over [[AnAesop in order to drive home a point]]. In this case, service to the state above the self, which becomes something of a theme with ''both'' characters as the show goes on.
*** Bashir and Garak also discuss Cardassian mystery novels. Bashir finds them unsatisfying because ''everyone'' is guilty; Garak says that the point is to figure out who is guilty of what. This accords with the Cardassian legal system, where the accused is immediately found guilty and sentenced, after which the trial determines ''how'' they committed the crime.

The tendency for alien civilizations (and sometimes futuristic human civilizations) to be portrayed as having no native analog of contemporary popular culture, even when it would make sense for an advanced planetary or interplanetary civilization to have some kind of mass media. Sometimes this can be due to TheLawOfConservationOfDetail, but frequently these cultures are exquisitely detailed: the creator of TheVerse has written a rich, deep, complex culture with its own religions and traditions...but what do people do for fun?

In practice, this means that while [[Franchise/StarTrek Klingons]] have their own culture complete with [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Proud Warrior Race]] [[NoSuchThingAsSpaceJesus Space-Jesus]] and Vulcans have their [[ProudScholarRaceGuy Proud Scholar Race Space-Socrates]], there's no alien equivalent of ''Film/TheThreeStooges'' or ''Anime/DragonBallZ''. These rich, detailed cultures, spread over dozens of planets and actively exploring the galaxy, seemingly have no literature that isn't ancient and part of their mythology. They have no television, films, novels, etc.; only epics, myths, legends, sacred scrolls, and ancient tomes. Frequently, the entirety of an alien culture is equated with its religious mythology and traditions, completely excluding the existence of a secular mass media ([[PlanetOfHats there being only one religion on the planet is a problem in and of itself]]). This leads alien characters to interpret human popular culture along religious lines, for example when G'Kar in ''Series/BabylonFive'' asks if WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck is one of Garibaldi's household gods.

* In ''Fanfic/ThingsXCOMOperativesAreNoLongerAllowedToDo'', the Alien Entertainment System (a peice of VendorTrash from the original ''UFO Defense'' game) is officially off-limits, but if people *do* mess with it anyways, they're not allowed to beat the Commander's HighScore.

* In the [[VideoGame/XcomUFODefense original Xcom,]] you can loot an "Alien Entertainment System." It has no value except as VendorTrash.

** The Yeerks however, are a straight example. When Edriss fist arrives on Earth and scans the planet, she is mystified by the enormous amount of non-military communication humans transmit, and initially takes it to mean that we are some kind of juggernaut.

* ''VideoGame/{{Tamagotchi}}'': Initially played straight, as Tamagotchi life was much simpler before meeting humans. Completely averted after visiting Earth, as much of the planet changed to resemble Earth, including a massive influx of pop culture, and several breeds came into existence as a result of mimicking the planet's cultures.

** There are relatively few many mentions of what the [[TheEmpire Imperium of Man]] considers culture, and the few instances of it are things like only Gregorian Chant being the only thing broadcast between work announcements to the only channel on a space station. Though, there are several references to opera and plays, still very little in the way of pop culture. FanOn holds that they have propaganda cartoon serials.
** However, Literature/CiaphasCain[[note]] HERO OF THE IMPERIUM![[/note]] seems to be more familiar with Imperial pop culture than a run of the mill Inquisitor or Space Marine, and his series makes the majority of the references to Imperial pop culture. These include the popular if historically inaccurate holo series ''Attack Run'', a holo series very loosely about Cain himself called ''[[Series/HogansHeroes Cain's Heroes]]'',the children's song ''[[CrossesTheLineTwice The Tracks on the Land Raider Crush the Heretics]]'', and ''Pyrus the Flame'' from an edutainment book on promethium.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/WhatIf'' episode, "[[Recap/WhatIfS1E5WhatIfZombies What If...Zombies?!]] Okoye says LetsSplitUpGang when running from zombies. Peter asks her if they have horror movies in Wakanda and she replies they don't need them because they watch American reality shows instead.

* All sorts of alien pop culture is showcased in ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty''. There are even two episodes dedicated to viewing snippets of interdimensional television, with many of them being from alien worlds.

* ''VideoGame/StarControl'' mentions a few alien past-times, such as the Zoq-Fot-Pik's sport "Frungy". The Arilou are also depicted as doing something akin to fishing when in local time-space, saying that they hunt for *Ngnnn*, and when they catch them, they immediately let them go again. A Spathi ship on a long mission has "[=FunROMs=]" for entertainment, which from context are equivalent to [=CDs=] or [=DVDs=], though the contents are left to the imagination.

In practice, this means that while [[Franchise/StarTrek Klingons]] have their own culture complete with [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Proud Warrior Race]] [[NoSuchThingAsSpaceJesus Space-Jesus]] and Vulcans have their [[ProudScholarRaceGuy Proud Scholar Race Space-Socrates]], there's no alien equivalent of ''Film/TheThreeStooges'' or ''Anime/DragonBallZ''. These rich, detailed cultures, spread over dozens of planets and actively exploring the galaxy, seemingly have no literature that isn't ancient and part of their mythology. They have no television, films, magazines, novels, pop music, animation, social media, or video games; only epics, myths, legends, sacred scrolls, and ancient tomes. Frequently, the entirety of an alien culture is equated with its religious mythology and traditions, completely excluding the existence of a secular mass media ([[PlanetOfHats there being only one religion on the planet is a problem in and of itself]]). This leads alien characters to interpret human popular culture along religious lines, for example when G'Kar in ''Series/BabylonFive'' asks if WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck is one of Garibaldi's household gods.

Perhaps the biggest reason this trope exists is simple practicality. For a writer to explore alien pop culture, they would have to invent brand new genres of entertainment which could be unlike anything on Earth. Even the fiction mainstays--drama, romance, comedy, adventure, and horror--would still rely on social cues and cultural references that would be, well, alien to a viewer from Earth[[note]]It's a safe bet, for example, that a race with BizarreAlienPsychology would have a nearly unrecognizable version of PsychologicalHorror; If they evolved a fight-or-flight response that makes them reflexively spew acid instead of scream like ours does, for example, then they'd likely have a trope called "Acid Jet Discretion Shot" instead of ScreamDiscretionShot[[/note]]. Even here on Earth, what one culture considers entertaining might be seen as boring, trashy, or just plain weird to another. Comedy in particular is ''extremely'' difficult to translate across cultural lines. Creating all this from scratch would be a daunting task for even the most seasoned showrunners. For this reason, it's much easier to vaguely state that yes, these aliens have their own Music/JayZ and Music/{{Beyonce}}, then move on without lingering on the subject.

Perhaps the biggest reason this trope exists is simple practicality. For a writer to explore alien pop culture, they would have to invent brand new genres of entertainment which could be unlike anything on Earth. Even the fiction mainstays--drama, romance, comedy, adventure, and horror/suspense--would still rely on social cues and cultural references that would be, well, alien to a viewer from Earth[[note]]It's a safe bet, for example, that a race with BizarreAlienPsychology would have a nearly unrecognizable version of PsychologicalHorror; If they evolved a fight-or-flight response that makes them reflexively spew acid instead of scream like ours does, for example, then they'd likely have a trope called "Acid Jet Discretion Shot" instead of ScreamDiscretionShot[[/note]]. Even here on Earth, what one culture considers entertaining might be seen as boring, trashy, or just plain weird to another. Comedy in particular is ''extremely'' difficult to translate across cultural lines. Creating all this from scratch would be a daunting task for even the most seasoned showrunners. For this reason, it's much easier to vaguely state that yes, these aliens have their own Music/JayZ and Music/{{Beyonce}}, then move on without lingering on the subject.

Perhaps the biggest reason this trope exists is simple practicality. For a writer to explore alien pop culture, they would have to invent brand new genres of entertainment which could be unlike anything on Earth. Even the fiction mainstays--drama, romance, comedy, adventure, and horror/suspense--would still rely on social cues and cultural references that would be, well, alien to a viewer from Earth[[note]]It's a safe bet, for example, that a race with BizarreAlienPsychology would have a nearly unrecognizable version of PsychologicalHorror; If they evolved a fight-or-flight response that makes them reflexively spew acid instead of scream like ours does, for example, then they'd likely have a trope called "Acid Jet Discretion Shot" instead of ScreamDiscretionShot[[/note]]. Even ''on'' Earth, what one culture considers entertaining might be seen as boring, confusing, trashy, or just plain weird to another. Comedy in particular is ''extremely'' difficult to translate across cultural lines. Creating all this from scratch would be a daunting task for even the most seasoned showrunners. For this reason, it's much easier to vaguely state that yes, these aliens have their own Music/JayZ and Music/{{Beyonce}}, then move on without lingering on the subject.

* All sorts of alien pop culture is showcased in ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty''.

* ''FanFic/TheLastSpartan'' has an unggoy (grunt) sitcom entitled ''My Life with Yapyap,'' which is almost but not entirely unlike FRIENDS. It deals with the misadventures of the emponymous grunt and his asari wife. It also features Elites acting in commercials.

* ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'': ''The Essential Guide to Alien Species'' details Rodian theatre, which started as little more than staged fights to redirect the Rodians' ProudWarriorRaceGuy tendencies away from hunting each other into extinction, but eventually evolved actual story.

* A plot point in ''LightNovel/HaiyoreNyarkoSan'', where pop culture is explicitly humanity's [[PlanetOfHats hat]]. In one episode Nyarko explains that aliens ''do'' have their own entertainment media, but they vastly prefer Earth's because of the quality and variety.

** However, Literature/CiaphasCain seems to be more familiar with Imperial pop culture than a run of the mill Inquisitor or Space Marine, and his series makes the majority of the references to Imperial pop culture. These include the popular if historically inaccurate holo series ''Attack Run'', a holo series very loosely about Cain himself called ''[[Series/HogansHeroes Cain's Heroes]]'',the children's song ''[[CrossesTheLineTwice The Tracks on the Land Raider Crush the Heretics]]'', and ''Pyrus the Flame'' from an edutainment book on promethium.

[[folder:Radio]]
* One episode of ''Radio/XMinusOne'' involved a scientist trading movie libraries with Sagittarians. [[AlienArtsAreAppreciated They liked]] ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}},'' and send him a broadcast of their equivalent of ''Buck Rodgers.''
[[/folder]]

Perhaps the biggest reason this trope exists is simple practicality. For a writer to explore alien pop culture, they would have to invent brand new genres of entertainment which could be unlike anything on Earth. Even the fiction mainstays--drama, romance, comedy, adventure, and horror/suspense--would still rely on social cues and cultural references that would be, well, alien to a viewer from Earth (It's a safe bet, for example, that a race with BizarreAlienPsychology would have a nearly unrecognizable version of PsychologicalHorror; If they evolved a fight-or-flight response that makes them reflexively spew acid instead of scream like ours does, for example, then they'd likely have a trope called "Acid Jet Discretion Shot" instead of ScreamDiscretionShot). Even ''on'' Earth, what one culture considers entertaining might be seen as boring, confusing, trashy, or just plain stupid to another. Comedy in particular is ''extremely'' difficult to translate across cultural lines. Creating all this from scratch would be a daunting task for even the most seasoned showrunners. For this reason, it's much easier to vaguely state that yes, these aliens have their own Music/JayZ and Music/{{Beyonce}}, then move on without lingering on the subject.

* In ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy,'' most alien cultures are parodies of Earth's culture, so alien rock bands, idiotic advertisements, and goofy sports abound. (In most cases these amount to a couple of adjectives in front of an Earth sport, such as "Brockian ultra cricket." Which apparently isn't actually much like ''Earth'' cricket, given how the rest of the galaxy [[DudeNotFunny feels about that]]. Particularly the little ball hitting the wicket, that's [[TooSoon very nasty]].)